Reviewing all federal tech laws, creating a “future state” strategy, and overhauling the pay and job classification system are among the nonpartisan nonprofit’s bolder recommendations.

The Roadmap for Renewing Our Federal Government document builds on President Biden‘s early executive orders promoting data-driven decision making across agencies and a diverse federal workforce with a focus on keeping pace with tech innovations.

“Federal agencies offer few incentives for employees to try new ideas, are saddled with outdated technology and lag behind the private sector in hiring qualified technologists in sufficient numbers for critical leadership and staff positions,” it reads. “This antiquated system is an impediment to the government’s ability to meet the needs of today’s interconnected, technology-driven world and prepare for the challenges of the future.”

PPS recommends Congress end crisis budgeting — because short-term spending resolutions and government shutdowns hurt agencies’ ability to invest in replacing or modernizing legacy IT systems — in favor of biennial budget resolutions, multi-year appropriations and the timely passage of appropriations bills. 

Congress should also conduct a comprehensive review of all federal technology management laws to identify where the framework for how government buys and manages technology needs an updater, according to the roadmap.

Finally passing the Federal Agency Customer Experience (FACE) Act and other legislation would make it easier for agencies to collect and publish customer experience (CX) data, per the document.

As for the administration, PPS recommends it set a “moonshot” goal for improving customer services that will boost confidence in government, as well as create a governmentwide strategy for a federal tech future state.

“Outlining the steps, resources and roles essential to upgrade technology, while providing flexibility for agencies based on the technology needs of their employees and customers, will help government adapt to rapidly changing demands,” reads the roadmap. “Political and career leaders should also have a basic familiarity with technology and cybersecurity issues in order to focus on key priorities and make informed choices across all policy areas.”

The administration would also be wise to expand CX guidance to apply to more high-impact services because the Office of Management and Budget‘s 2018 guidance only applies to 25 such service, per the document.

Agencies should use Challenge.gov resources to launch internal idea competitions that fund employee proposals and have procurement innovation coaches support the acquisition workforce on specific projects — like the Procurement Innovation Lab at the Department of Homeland Security or Digital IT Acquisition Professional Program, according to PPS.

The roadmap also recommends agencies prioritize the executive order on improving racial equity and support for underserved communities.

On the workforce front, PPS wants to see Congress replace the current federal pay and job classification system “designed for clerical workers” with an occupation-based, market-sensitive one better positioned to fill critical skill gaps in cybersecurity and IT positions.

The administration should create a federal internship and fellowship database, streamline the application process and make hiring platforms more easily accessible and mobile-friendly to attract top, young talent, according to the roadmap.

Meanwhile agencies can boost employee retention with robust mentorship and professional development opportunities.

“Outlining the steps, resources and roles essential to upgrade technology, while providing flexibility for agencies based on the technology needs of their employees and customers, will help government adapt to rapidly changing demands,” reads the document. “Political and career leaders should also have a basic familiarity with technology and cybersecurity issues in order to focus on key priorities and make informed choices across all policy areas.”

Clear performance metrics on employee development and data on departures are also needed, according to PPS.

Among its collaboration recommendations, PPS suggests the administration enhance Performance.gov, the website for monitoring goals and results, to support interagency councils. Agencies are advices to add evaluation experts to projects and initiatives to ensure data-based decision-making.

“The Biden administration and Congress have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build on recent innovations and set the government on a sustained path to renewal,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of PPS, in a statement.

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As part of a recent contest on Challenge.gov, GSA tasked entrants with using ML or artificial intelligence to speed up reviews of software end-user license agreements (EULAs) — but the agency only provided several thousand rows of text with the use case.

“The first thing we learned was that industry could actually do this,” Day said Tuesday during the first day of FedTalks presented by FedScoop. “Our use case, going in we didn’t have any assumptions about whether or not it could be done with machine learning, but we found that it was a good fit.”

Normally supervised ML requires large amounts of data, but many of the 20 entries GSA received were “high quality” and used workaround techniques like transfer learning,

Transfer learning is used in natural language processing when open-source models are pre-trained with vast amounts of other text and then fine-tuned with data specific to an individual use case — in this case the EULAs.

Contracting officers (COs) generally take one to two weeks reviewing EULAs to ensure their terms and conditions align with federal law as part of the software acquisition process. COs may coordinate a legal review with the Office of General Counsel to negotiate the removal of problematic language.

The AI and Machine Learning Challenge allowed GSA to test current commercial practices, with multiple teams using the Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) language model for transfer learning.

Other teams found creative ways to augment and generate new training data, with one using a cloud tool to translate clauses into hundreds of other languages and then back into English, Day said. The new clauses had the same meaning but different diction and syntax, serving as new training data.

Yet another team proposed an application programming interface-based approach to breaking down Microsoft Word and PDF documents into clauses that predictions could be run on for determining viability.

Dev Technology placed first in October winning $15,000, while second-place Gaussian Solutions won $2,500 and third-place Team SoKat $2,500.

Meanwhile, GSA’s challenge allowed it to test commercial capabilities before developing proofs of concept, pilots and scaling into production.

“We can move some of the things that we learned into actual requirements from a business perspective, as well as a technology perspective, said Keith Nakasone, deputy assistant commissioner for acquisition in GSA’s Office of IT Category, at FedTalks. “So I think this is a good way to start; the challenge gave us some really good insight into the tools available.”

Ethical AI

As the Department of Defense, intelligence community and Department of Homeland Security begin exploring ML and AI technologies they’ve opted to establish ethical AI principles for their agencies to follow.

GSA is taking a slightly different approach by gathering ethical AI concepts from agencies participating in its AI Community of Practice, Nakasone said.

“It brings the agencies together so we can learn best practices, we can share information and also glean what we can do from creating templates and playbooks,” he said.

Industry has a role to play in informing GSA’s understanding of ethical AI as well, Nakasone said.

“Companies that are putting ethical principles out there for us to leverage is also another thing that we can consider from a contract and acquisition perspective,” he said.

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Two Baltimore-based development firms — Fearless and Smart Logic — announced recently that they have entered into a contract with the General Services Administration to create a new platform and user experience for the central government citizen science competition portal.

Greg Godbout, Fearless’ director of digital services and a founding member of GSA’s 18F, called the work “a classic digital service upgrade.” Godbout couldn’t comment yet on exactly what the new features will be — he said Fearless and Smart Logic are still in the process of negotiating the specifics with GSA. But he said the redesign will touch both the front end and back end of the platform, meaning it’ll change both the way citizen scientists who participate in challenges interact with it and the way agencies post and share the challenges.

GSA echoed this focus, and hinted at one specific element of the revamp. “This fiscal year, we expect to roll out a site with a refreshed look that makes it easier for the public to participate as well as a more streamlined process for content management,” an agency spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “On the solver side, we plan to eventually add the ability to upload submissions directly to the site.”

Overall, Godbout said, the goal is to increase engagement with the platform. In an ideal world, the redesign would lead to more agencies posting more challenges in which more people are engaging and competing.

“We hope to continue to facilitate and expand the federal government’s use of prize competitions to engage the public in problem-solving,” the GSA spokesperson said.

Challenges are valuable to government because they de-risk the ideation and discovery phase, Godbout went on. They can bring down the level of uncertainty involved in brand new initiatives.

“The prize competitions and challenges on the Challenge.gov platform facilitate a form of public engagement that can generate transformational innovation,” Fearless founder and CEO Delali Dzirasa said. “The challenges have a real path to execution, everyday people can make a difference and engage with their government.”

Recent agency challenges posted to Challenge.gov include a Federal Aviation Administration competition on the future of the smart airport, a NASA challenge on building robots for space exploration and more.

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IDSS, an airport security scanning company based in Armonk, NY, won $500,000 for its solution which combines a 3D X-ray scanner with “automated detection algorithms.”

The runner-up, One Resonance, presented a solution that uses radio frequency to search for illicit substances, for which it won $250,000.

“The influx of illicit drugs is one of the nation’s greatest threats,” William N. Bryan, DHS senior official performing the duties of undersecretary for science and technology, said in a statement. “Through this combined effort to address the trafficking of opioids, S&T, our federal partners, and the private sector have produced technology solutions that will better protect the American people from the effects of this devastating crisis.”

The opioid detection challenge launched in February as a partnership between DHS S&T, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). The stated goal was to find “novel, automated, nonintrusive, user-friendly and well-developed” ideas for tools and technologies that can detect opioids in the mail and thus disrupt their flow.

The broader goal, of course, is to combat the ongoing deadly opioid epidemic, a public health crisis that claimed around 50,000 lives in 2017.

In June, the challenge organizers chose eight finalists and gave each $100,000. The challenge culminated Thursday with an event and a live test of the technologies at the DHS Transportation Security Laboratory (TSL) in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey.

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The agency’s “smart airport” challenge holds a goal of “improving the efficiency and effectiveness of smart technology in and around the airport environment” while also “enhancing the overall traveling experience.” The opportunity is advertised on central government citizen-science platform Challenge.gov.

Following direction from Congress in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, the agency is looking into how technology can help shorten security lines, make check-in more efficient and speed up airplane turn around times. Through all of this, the challenge description states, the FAA wants to keep a focus on creating a better human experience of travel.

All submitted ideas will be judged by a team of FAA subject-matter experts. They’ll assess whether the concept is technically possible and practical for an airport setting, as well as whether it could have the desired impact on the traveling experience.

Student teams have until January 13, 2020, to submit project plans. Three finalist teams will then be invited to demonstrate their concepts during an FAA technical symposium in May 2020. There’s a $25,000 prize for the team that eventually comes out on top.

But as the FAA’s challenge post also reveals, the competition isn’t just about getting new tech into airports. It’s also about allowing the agency to engage with upcoming talent.

“The FAA is using this competition to … drive a passion for aviation in today’s youth of all ages and backgrounds,” the challenge guidelines state.

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The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) thinks computer vision technology can help deliver this kind of information — and that’s the focus of xView2, a new challenge organized by DIU with partners at NASA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center and more.

Today, disaster relief efforts use satellite imagery to get a sense of disaster damage, but they do it by hand. And because these disasters can impact a large space, analysts have to contend with “huge swaths of pixel space to localize and score damage in the area of interest,” the challenge’s organizers say. “It is a slow and laborious process.”

Automating this process with the help of technology, they hope, could enable quicker recovery after fires, hurricanes and more.

The challenge will benchmark different algorithms against each other. The algorithms must be able to score buildings in a post-disaster image on a scale of one to four — one meaning no building damage and four meaning that the building is completely destroyed.

xView2 is, as the name suggests, the second xView challenge. The first, which kicked off in March 2018, focused on computer vision object detection. Now, organizers are taking the challenge a step further.

Submissions to xView2 are due by Nov. 22 and DIU plans to announce winners in December.

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Specifically, the space agency is interested in machines that will be able to use “local resources” on the lunar surface to supply human astronauts with basic supplies — water, food, propellants — for long missions. The robots must be able to act with little or no human intervention, so NASA is looking for help building software systems that will allow autonomy on the moon.

The agency has launched phase two of its Space Robotics Challenge, aiming to advance robotic autonomy in places where no GPS-style technology exists. The challenge is being organized by NASA and sponsored by “global resources company” BHP, with $1 million total in prize money up for the taking.

Registration for the challenge opened in mid-August, and will stretch through Dec. 20. The challenge will then take place in two rounds — a qualification round during which a top 25 teams will be chosen, and a competition round. The whole thing isn’t expected to wrap up until October 2021.

Phase one of the Space Robotics Challenge focused on improving the capabilities of NASA’s R5 robot. Winners were announced in June 2017.

The robotics contest is one of four challenges in NASA’s Centennial Challenge initiative. The program aims to “stimulate innovation in basic and applied research, technology development, and prototype demonstration” by diverse and nontraditional parties.

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This solution, which finds the drugs by measuring how X-rays are diffracted when they pass through a parcel, is just one of eight concepts that DHS Science and Technology Directorate has chosen as finalists in its $1.5 million Opioid Detection Challenge.

The challenge, a partnership between the directorate, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), aims to uncover “novel, automated, nonintrusive, user-friendly and well-developed” ideas for tools and technologies that can detect opioids in the mail and thus stem the flow of this illicit drug.

The challenge call-out received 83 submissions, each of which were assessed by a panel of experts in forensic science, postal operations, artificial intelligence and more. In the end just eight were selected to move on to phase two, during which the companies will take part in a 14 week prototyping accelerator.

“I am very impressed with the creative detection technologies submitted, and we look forward to deploying new solutions in operational environments,” Acting Secretary of DHS, Kevin K. McAleenan, said in a statement.

Besides two companies working on solutions utilizing X-rays, challenge finalists will be building:

• A solution that analyzes the energy spectra produced as neutrons and gamma rays pass through packages.
• A solution using hyperspectral imaging.
• A solution that uses radio-frequency signals to search for substances that produce certain frequencies, and more.

Each of the eight finalists will receive a $100,000 cash prize. When phase two culminates with a live test event, there will be another $750,000 on the line for top performers.

“A critical part of addressing the addiction crisis is finding new ways to stop the flow of deadly drugs coming into our country,” ONDCP Director Jim Carroll said in a statement. “This is exactly why we have taken a whole-of-government approach and launched this competition. We will continue to support the development of these creative solutions that have the potential to detect opioids and ultimately save lives.”

The challenge launched in February, and DHS intends to wrap it up by fall.

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The agency is planning a day-long Customer Experience Hackathon on June 19. The event is scheduled to take place simultaneously at eight GSA locations across the county — including in San Francisco and Chicago and at 1800 F Street in Washington, D.C.

A listing for the event is posted to central government citizen science platform Challenge.gov.

“Improving customer experience (CX) is an important part of the President’s Management Agenda, and is key to GSA’s four strategic goals,” a GSA spokesperson told FedScoop. “GSA created the Customer Experience Hackathon to improve the overall engagement with, and usability of, GSA applications through collaboration between the private and public sectors.”

Attendees of the event will have a chance to work on four different “GSA-centric applications,” some that are internal to the agency and some that are outward-facing. GSA declined to specify what these four applications are.

“We hope to achieve viable solutions to some of the agency’s critical CX problems and to enhance the conversation about why it’s important to improve customer experience in all GSA services,” a spokesperson said.

For would-be hackathon participants there’s $20,000 in prize money available to be won. Four teams selected after round one of judging will be eligible for $2,500 each, then one grand prize winner out of that bunch will get an additional $10,000. Judging in round one will be done by three or four federal employees, GSA says. In round two there will be a “federal executive judging panel.”

GSA has hosted two hackathons before. The Earth Day Hackathon, in April 2016, focused on helping the government “go green” and the Grace Hopper Hackathon, in December 2016, saw teams work on the redesign of open.gsa.gov.

Other agencies have embraced the idea of improving CX, including the Department of Veterans Affairs. Leaders from GSA and the VA spoke earlier this month about their approach to it.

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The General Services Administration and the White House Office of Management and Budget announced Thursday that they have teamed up to launch a prize competition around this initiative. The challenge, posted to governmentwide competition platform Challenge.gov, invites problem solvers from the public, from academia, and from industry to “demonstrate the potential of the GEAR Center.”

Solvers are asked to lay out how the GEAR Center would approach one or more major challenges that government faces, as identified in the President’s Management Agenda. The idea is that, through the competition, the government will get a sense for the “feasibility” of the GEAR Center model before it invests in the concept further.

“Today’s digital economy has transformed how citizens interact with government. By leveraging technology and innovation, the GEAR Center will ensure our government connects to cutting-edge thinking and real-world solutions,” OMB’s Deputy Director for Management Margaret Weichert said in a statement. “This Administration is improving the federal government’s ability to provide better citizen-centered services better positioned to address new and complex challenges.”

The concept for the GEAR Center as a research entity focused on helping private companies develop new ideas in the hopes of improving government efficiency has been floating around in the Trump administration since summer 2018.

“If someone has got as great and innovative idea and they are a relatively small company, it’s pretty hard to approach the federal government to get a pilot going,” Weichert said during a conference call in August 2018. “We have prohibitions in our procurement policy that make it difficult for us to take free samples. All of those are things that we feel that we need the market to help us figure out: What’s the right way to approach this?”

In December, Weichert said she anticipated that the government would move to set up the GEAR Center in 2019.

Now, OMB and GSA are sending up the first trial balloons, and there is a total of $900,000 in cash prizes attached. Three winning teams with projects that are innovative, relevant and sustainable will win $300,000 each. Initial concept papers are due May 24. Challenge organizers anticipate that they will announce the winners on Aug. 1.

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